Thomas Paine was a political and deistic writer; born at Thetford, England, 1736- 1737. His parents were Quakers. He left school at thirteen and till eighteen worked at his father's trade of stay-making, when he went to sea in a privateer. In April, 1759, he settled at Sandwich as a master stay-maker, and in September of that year married. Not prospering he removed to Margate the next year and there soon after his wife died. In 1761 he entered the excise branch of the government service and remained there till 1774, with the exception of a couple of years when, probably owing to his lax conduct, he was out of the service. He was restored but again dismissed, and finally, on the charge of smuggling. In 1771 he married Elizabeth Ollive, daughter of his landlord. In 1772 he wrote a small pamphlet, The Case of the Officers of Excise; with Remarks on the Qualifications of Officers, and on the numerous Evils arising to the Revenue, from the Insufficiency of the present Salary: humbly addressed to the Members of both Houses of Parliament. It was the first public exhibit on of his power as a writer, but it gave offense to the upper officials and probably was the occasion of his dismissal on a trumped-up charge. Shortly after this he and his wife were formally separated.

By advice of Benjamin Franklin, whom he met in London, he came to America and at once found employment for his pen. He was a contributor to the first issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine, published in Philadelphia in January, 1775, and soon after its editor and so continued for eighteen months. From August, 1776, to January, 1777, he was a soldier in Washington's army, and it was while at the front that he wrote the first number of The Crisis which so powerfully heartened the country for the struggle. Thus introduced to the notice of the patriots he had employment as opportunity offered and was considered as a person worthy of substantial rewards. In 1777 he became secretary to the Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs, but was obligated to resign on January 7, 1779, because in the heat of a newspaper controversy with Silas Deane he divulged state secrets. In November, 1779, he was clerk to the general assembly of Pennsylvania. In 1781, in association with Col. John Laurens he negotiated in France a loan of 6,000,000 livres. He returned on August 25. In February, 1782, he was engaged by the secretary of foreign affairs at what was then called the handsome salary of $800 per annum. In 1784 the state of New York gave him a house and 277 acres of land at New Rochelle, in 1785 Pennsylvania 500 pounds of sterling, and in October, 1785, Congress gave him $3000. The several amounts were sufficient to make him financially independent. From 1787 to 1802 he was in Europe, most of the time in France. His Rights of Man, published in London in 1791, attracted the attention of the French liberal party, and he was made a citizen of France and elected to the National Assembly. He had the courage to vote against the execution of Louis XVI., and thus incurred the anger of Robespierre, who threw him into the prison of the Luxembourg on December 28, 1793, and there he remained until November 4, 1794, when, on the solicitation of James Monroe, minister to France, he was released. He tells himself of his marvelous escape from the guillotine, which was solely due to the fact that his door in the prison was opened outward. It had been marked in token that the occupant of the room was to be executed, but his door being closed for the night the mark was of course not seen by those going through the prison in the early morning to drag out their victims.

On October 30, 1802, he landed once more in America. He found that his friends had so managed his property that it would yield him an income of 400 pounds sterling. So he felt quite rich. But what cut him deeply was to find that the reputation he had made as a patriot had been almost forgotten and it was as the author of The Age of Reason he was known. So great was the popular execration of that book that many who would gladly have shown their appreciation of his great services to the country refused to countenance him on account of it. Hooted upon the streets, lampooned in the newspapers, deserted by his political associates, he lived a wretched existence. He was buried on his farm in New Rochelle, but his remains were removed to England in 1819 by William Cobbett. What became of them is unknown.

(Reprinted with permission from Laissez Faire Books)

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